Hon Deputy Speaker, Deputy President and hon members, we are now en route to the decolonisation and Africanisation of the South African legal system and the judiciary. This was long overdue. We must rid our legal system of racism, wealth and privilege as criteria for access to justice and legal services that allows unfettered self-regulation of the legal profession and a deeply divided Bar that escalates fees and makes justice inaccessible to the majority of the people.
A legal system must also be informed by the people's value system. It cannot be explained why today, 20 years after freedom, we still have to go to Roman Dutch law and English law to find out what is in the best interests of our people's aspirations for justice. We believe that the concept of ubuntu, which transcends race, colour and creed, is enough to provide a basis for a South African and African common law.
It is a matter of grave concern that on the eve of the 20th anniversary of our freedom from apartheid colonialism, political parties in this House are not yet at one on the transformation of the judiciary and the legal profession.
The DA and some sections of the Bar and Side Bar do not even accept the term "transformation". They want to change the form, not the substance of the legal system and the legal profession. Thus they prefer the term "restructuring", not "transformation".
The ANC made many compromises in good faith to enable the parties to reach consensus so that this Parliament can pass this Bill. These compromises notwithstanding, the DA rejected this Bill in its entirety, showing that they negotiated in bad faith. However, the ANC remains committed to this Bill, because it provides a framework for the transformation of the legal profession and the judiciary in line with our Constitution.
The Legal Practice Bill gives the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and the unified legal profession the authority to drive the transformation of the legal profession, which is a prerequisite for the transformation of the judiciary itself. This will open the door for the Africanisation or indigenisation of the law. Ubuntu values and principles must be infused in our legal system to ensure that once and for all we eradicate the dispensation of justice on the basis of race, colour or creed. The DA and its supporters lose sight of the fact that the state has a primary responsibility to ensure that all citizens, regardless of race, class and gender, have access to justice and legal services. The legal profession represents its own interests, not the interests of the downtrodden who want to receive their due. The state is a custodian of the interests of the citizenry, not the legal profession.
The independence of the profession is an important element of the rule of law, but it cannot and should not take precedence over access to justice and legal services.
It must also be the responsibility of the attorneys and advocates to train a new crop of lawyers. It is difficult to understand why the DA and its fellow travellers would argue that people serving pupillage should not be paid by the advocates, which means that the majority of young black graduates will not be able to enter the profession and therefore swell the ranks of those who must be appointed judges in this country. Therefore, we will remain with a white judiciary and white Bar for many years to come.
The DA sought to import an Australian legal fee structure lock, stock and barrel, in total disregard of the fact that in South Africa we have two worlds: the First and the Third World. The DA lives in the First World and legislates for the elites. It has no regard for the overwhelming majority of the people, who have not tasted freedom since 1652. [Applause.]
South Africa and Africa at large must indigenise the law. In essence, the DA wants a system of co-governance between the executive and the legal profession that has not yet been transformed. Under apartheid colonialism, the criteria for access to justice and legal services were race and wealth. Under the DA government, it would be wealth and privilege. [Interjections.] This would bar thousands of black graduates, in particular, from entering into the legal profession.
The policy of the DA on the legal profession shows that the DA falsely makes itself a champion of job creation for the youth. Thousands of law students and graduates will soon see through the DA and respond appropriately. The DA has proven beyond reasonable doubt that its old- fashioned liberalism is a great impediment to its own transformation to include the black middle-class. The DA is pro-corporate and is hell bent on defending the social and economic privileges of the few. South Africans, especially the youth, would be nave to believe that a party that cannot transform itself would be able to transform the legal profession, the judiciary and the country. [Applause.]
I can assure you, Mrs Dene Smuts, that when we return in 2014, with an increased majority, we will transform the legal profession and ensure that we have a progressive legal profession. I hope that you will have retired by that time, otherwise you will faint. Thank you very much. [Applause.]